This website is using JavaScript and your browser is not. For best appearance, functionality and navigation, please enable Javascript.
Without Javascript you can not view the extensive menu for smooth navigation. Click here for an alternative menu or
here for the homepage.

Haircutting Tips: Angles and Elevation (2)

The angles used in cutting the hair are going to vary widely from style to style and even from
hair type to hair type. Because of this, there is no real reason to try and complicate matters needlessly. Unless otherwise specified in
the cutting instructions, when it says “the hair is cut at ‘X-degree’ angle, it means that the scissors are held at an angle of
x-degrees in relation to the line of the floor. For example a 45-degree cutting angle would mean holding the scissors halfway between
completely horizontal (parallel to the floor) and completely vertical (perpendicular to the floor).

The use of angles and elevation help a stylist create a variety of looks. Generally speaking, the lower the elevation and the more
horizontal the cutting angle, the less layered and more blunt the cut will be. Increasing either or both the cutting angle and elevation
will increase the amount of layering in the hair.

For example: the classic blunt bob is cut with the hair at zero degrees of elevation and using
a horizontal cutting angle; and the long-layered “shag” haircut is created by holding the hair at 180-degrees elevation and using a
45-degree cutting angle to create shorter-to-longer layers from the center of the head to the outside. Every other style and cut out
there is simply a variation on the theme created by combining angles and elevation in different ways at different points around the head.